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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Language is a human system of communication
that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.In
its implementation, human can make or named a symbol to sign a fact, but animal
can’t do that. Language life in society and used by all people to communicate.

The term language is same with bahasa
in Indonesian, lughatun in Arabic, and sprache in French. All of the terms have
a broad aspect which is very difficult to understand.There are some definitions of language from
the experts;

·Chomsky
said that language is a set of sentences, each finite length and contracted out
of a finite set of elements.

Those are the definition of language from some
expert. We can’t judge which one is the best and which one is not. Every expert
has a different way to explain it; their concept of language is still same. All
of them want to explain that language is a tool for communication. So language
is a statement that spoken orally, symbol, or signs that used in our real
communication.

B.Definition of Culture

There are culture definitions from some
experts:

·Edgar
Schein: Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are
shared by members of an organization that operate unconsciously and define in a
basic ‘taken for granted’ fashion an organization’s view of its self and its
environment.

·Geert
Hoftede: Culture is the collective programming of the human mind that
distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture in
this sense is a system of collectively held values.

From all of the definition above, we
can conclude that culture is a system of knowledge which covers an idea in
every human’s mind.So we can say that
culture is an abstract thing. Whereas the realization is the things that create
by the human being, as an act or things which is real, for examples : act,
language, living tools, social organizations, religion, art and so on.And all of them are created to make a good
society.

C.Language and Culture Phenomenon

Communication
is always accompanied by the interpretation of the meaning contained therein.
Meaning is never absolute; always determined by a variety of contexts which
always refers to the signs contained in human life in which there is cultural.
Because of that language is never separated from the cultural context and its
existence was always overshadowed by the culture.

Languageis unique andhasa very close relationshipwiththe speaker inculturalcommunity, then theanalysis of alanguageonly appliesto that languagealone, can not be usedtoanalyzeother languages.For example, ikan in Indonesian language means
the type of animals which lives in water. Ikan in banjar language called iwak.
But, a word iwak in Javanese means side dish such as, meat, tofu or soybean
cake. Why
did this happen? Because that language is a cultural product as well as
container and transmitter of culture of the language communities concerned.
Another phenomenon, the terms “brother and sister” (somebody who bore in the
same parents) in English means classification of people based on the gender.
But in Indonesian, classification of people commonly according to the age, the
oldest called kakak and the youngest called adik.

D.Relationship between Language and
Culture

Human’s live is always changes. Not
only their thoughts, but also the norm and value in the society also changed.
Because human is a creature who has an intelligence, not like animal. All of
that norm and value are branched out to adapt the period. They made it as an
orientation of their live. That’s why culture became a “method” that the human
need to do on their daily activity. Whereas language is tool of communication
which is to express our feeling through spoken or sign which is has a
correlation in the real humans live.

Indonesia, have plenty of experience
of different culture long time ago. For example, our county has been colonized
by Nederland. At that time, they has a big power in this country, they make
regulation and everything in Indonesia. They stole our live and freedom. We
can’t do what we are going to do, everything is limited. Sometimes they forced
us to do something that we don’t want to do. All of Indonesian people at that
time were suffering. At that time, there were many Indonesian people can speak
Dutch because Nederland brought their culture to this county but Indonesian people
at that time didn’t realize it. It’s done because there’s acculturation process
from Nederland to Indonesia.But now
there no people can speak in Dutch because our government before forbid us to
learn or using Dutch and ask us to use Indonesian language. At the present
time, there is a change very much among the public good associated with the
culture and language. If the colonial era only certain people can go to school,
another case with the era that gave freedom for all people to be able to
participate in education for the sake of change towards a better life. The
language used was gradually changing to follow the process of change.

Therefore
language is something that can’t be separated with culture. Languages ​​are born
because of the culture in certain communities, as well as culture is created
through language. So the culture and language are closely linked. Language
contained in a society and used as a tool to communicate. Language
created to communicate in society. Language appears to significantly influence
cultural differences. It also goes on to suggest that if people learn a
second language, they also learn a new way of understanding and viewing the
world around them. A group society makes a culture. They interacts
each other with it. In the other words language give a big influence to culture
in the society. It is generally agreed that language and culture are closely
related. Language can be viewed as a verbal expression of culture. It is used
to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. Language provides us with
many of the categories we use for expression of our thoughts, so it is
therefore natural to assume that our thinking is influenced by the language
which we use. The values and customs in the country we grow up in shape the way
in which we think to a certain extent. In our big world every minute is a
lesson looks at intercultural communication and examines how it can affect
interactions between people from countries and backgrounds. As it seems, each
culture dictates specific behaviors, visions, attitudes and also stereotypes.
Some people can adapt more easily to different intercultural interactions than
others and can perceive and accept other people’s vision more easily.